Overview
- Several municipalities have recently stopped renewing or voted to remove Flock Safety automated license‑plate readers, with Windsor and Killingworth, Connecticut, formally ending service and other cities pausing or reopening contracts for negotiation.
- Official audits found improper access and accuracy problems: a San Francisco compliance review logged 299 improper external queries to its Flock network and an LAPD inspector‑general audit flagged 161 falsely reported stolen‑vehicle alerts with a roughly 32% inaccuracy rate in reviewed alerts.
- Public pressure has escalated into organized protest and direct action, including widespread online organizing on the subreddit r/FlockSurveillance and repeated vandalism of camera poles that local police departments have had to investigate.
- Flock and its CEO defend the product as a crime‑fighting tool, saying customers control data, images are deleted after about 30 days and the company has added technical safeguards such as firewalls, multi‑factor authentication and third‑party audits during renegotiations.
- The dispute highlights broader policy questions about who owns and can query long‑running vehicle‑location records, how to prevent misuse by law enforcement or federal agencies like ICE, and whether more local rules or state laws will restrict private ALPR networks going forward.